Vancouver councillor elected MLA provides timeline for municipal byelection

Opposition City of Vancouver Coun. Christine Boyle says she has requested unpaid leave from city business with her formal resignation to come in December. That means a byelection to replace her won't come until the new year.

She said in a statement posted to social media Tuesday that city staff requested the delay so it can effectively run a byelection after getting through budget work and the holiday season.

Boyle, the city's only OneCity party councillor, was elected to the B.C. Legislature on Oct. 19.

She ran for the B.C. NDP in the riding of Vancouver-Little Mountain and won it with 62 per cent of the vote over Conservative candidate John Coupar, a former Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation commissioner.

"Vancouver, it has been an incredible honour to serve as one of your City Councillors over the past six years," said Boyle in her social media post. She was first elected to city council in 2018.

During her time on council, Boyle highlighted advocacy over building housing, taking action on climate change, reconciliation and improving transportation.

Her party, OneCity, which only has one other elected official in Vancouver, school board trustee Jennifer Reddy, said days after Boyle's provincial electoral win that it had plans underway for the byelection and "looks forward to winning the seat."

Political watchers say the byelection could reflect how voters are feeling about the direction of council, which is halfway through its four-year mandate.

It has a super-majority of seven A Better City Vancouver party (ABC) councillors aligned with Mayor Ken Sim. Boyle was one of three opposition councillors. The Greens' Adrian Carr and Pete Fry are the other two.

There has been tension on council and not just along party lines as it has grappled with balancing housing starts against climate goals, the role of the city's integrity commissioner and eliminating the elected park board.

UBC political science lecturer Stewart Prest says the byelection could signal an endorsement of ABC's direction by adding another councillor to its majority or have voters choose another opposition voice to replace Boyle to try to temper ABC governance.

"The byelection will give us an indication of what the strength of opposition currently is in the city," he said. "Or is ABC actually able to strengthen its majority further? That'll give us a sense of how much some of these controversial decisions actually are registering with voters."

Stephen Molnar, the president of ABC Vancouver, said in an email to CBC News that the party will review its plans for the byelection once Boyle officially resigns her seat.

Fry congratulated Boyle on her success and said he will miss working alongside her at council.

"She's going to make an amazing MLA," he said. "I'm obviously sad to lose her because she's been a fantastic city councillor and a great ally and friend, and it's going to be just that much more lonely around city hall for progressives."

Fry said there is interest from his party in running a candidate in the byelection, but discussions would be held with OneCity to ensure the two parties don't split votes as happened in 2017 when Fry and Independent candidate Jean Swanson lost to the NPA's Hector Bremner to replace departing Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs.

"There's a lot of, I think, interest to challenge ABC in the general public," said Fry. "So I think we want to make appropriate space for that but not overwhelm the opportunity."

In November, council is expected to vote on a staff report that would amend bylaws to allow natural gas heating in new home builds.

Council previously voted 6-5 in favour of the change, with the Greens, Boyle and two ABC councillors voting against it.